I have been reading the decision in State of Texas vs. Holder. I am no election lawyer, but Texas’s position at one point sounds a lot like it is trying to get the Supreme Court to rule Section 5 unconstitional.

On p. 17 of the decision, the District Court, in describing Texas’s decision, notes:

First, Texas argues that application of section 5’s effect element to voter ID laws is
inappropriate because such laws can never “deny[ ] or abridg[e] the right to vote.” 42 U.S.C.
§ 1973c(a)

because citizens who are not registered due to a “minor inconvenience” have made a choice not to vote. The Court says later that this argument “completely misses the point of Section 5,” which is certainly I understood it. I wonder, was it the same panel of jurists that rejected this precise argument “advanced by none other than the State of Texas”? There is more discussion of their logic on pg. 53.

My favorite moment, though, is the shout out to Robert Caro’s account of the 1948 Senbate election which promoted Lyndon Johnson to the Senate:

We can think of no good reason for their inclusion. After
all, Lyndon Johnson’s 1948 Senate race notwithstanding, the dead cannot vote in Texas. Robert Caro, Means to an Ascent 329 (First Vintage Books 1991).

The Early Voting Information Center

We are a non-partisan academic research center based at Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

Professor Paul Gronke and his team conduct research on early voting and election reform, predominantly in the United States. In addition to our scholarly research, we have worked on projects with the Pew Center on the States, the Federal Election Assistance Commission, the Center for American Progress and a number of state and local elections offices.

The Early Voting Information Center is proud to have co-hosted the inaugural Election Sciences, Reform, and Administration Conference in July of 2017. More information can be found on the conference website.

Professor Gronke's academic credentials--including his curriculum vita, courses taught, and other research papers--can be found at his personal Reed web page.